Brussels, 30 May 2022
The EU Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, and the EU Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, will travel to The Hague on Tuesday (31 May) to visit Europol and Eurojust headquarters to discuss cooperation and operational support to the Member States in fostering security in the EU.
First, the Commissioners will have a meeting with Eurojust President, Ladislav Hamram. They will also participate in a coordination meeting as part of the Joint Investigation Team on war crimes in Ukraine with the presence of the Prosecutors Generals of the participating countries. Commissioners will meet with the Eurojust College to have a presentation on practical casework. Later in the day, the Commissioners will continue their visit at Europol and will meet the Deputy Executive Director of Europol, Jürgen Ebner, Deputy Executive Director of Operations at Europol, Jean-Philippe Lecouffe, and the Head of the European Counter-Terrorism Centre, Claudio Galzerano. Overall, all the discussions have a specific focus on the ongoing actions to support the investigations into war crimes related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
EU Commissioners Reynders and Johansson will also hold a meeting with the Head of the European Serious Organised Crime Centre, Jari Liukku, and the Head of the European Financial and Economic Crime Centre, Burkhard Mühl, where questions of Europol’s operation capabilities and priorities, as well as of the ‘Seize and Freeze’ Task Force will be discussed. In the margins of the visit, Commissioner Reynders will have a bilateral meeting with Ukrainian Prosecutor General, Iryna Venediktova, to discuss the Commission’s efforts in supporting Eurojust and Ukraine to gather, exchange and transmit evidence of war crimes. The Commissioners will also meet with Edvardas Šileris, Head of the European Cybercrime Centre to discuss operational cases and initiatives in the fight against child sexual abuse and the identification of victims.